


Being Wanted (The Aggravated Assault Remix)

by Mara



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-11
Updated: 2010-05-11
Packaged: 2017-10-09 10:11:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/86054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mara/pseuds/Mara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oracle gets a little tired of being on call.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Being Wanted (The Aggravated Assault Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheSecondBatgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSecondBatgirl/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Being Wanted](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/689) by TheSecondBatgirl. 



"You there, Oracle?" Dinah asked, slightly breathless. In the background was the sound of a motorcycle whose engine was working overtime.

Babs considered banging her head against the keyboard, except she thought it might pop like a balloon with too much air. "Where the hell do you think I'd be? Maybe sunning on a beach in Honolulu?"

There was a moment in which the only sound was the motorcycle.

"Sorry, BC. Didn't mean to take it out on you." Babs took her hands off the keyboard for a moment to rub her temples and wonder how the hell she'd run out of coffee. Of course, it might have to do with the 30 hours she'd been awake so far, but really, it was just bad planning on her part. Normally she had enough coffee on hand to deal with another No Man's Land...

"Oracle, I hate to interrupt your undoubtedly important thoughts, but I could use a hand with the _ten ninjas on my tail_."

"Right. On it."

Dinah was nearly into Kyoto when Babs noticed a non-urgent message had arrived.

Oracle's computer didn't do anything so plebian as beep when she received e-mail or a phone call. No, she had a complicated personal color-coded system of alerts that flashed in the corners of certain screens to let her know if she needed to respond. These alerts told her who it was, where they were logged on or calling from, and even how serious their question was, using a text and voice recognition ranking system that would have made Google drool with envy.

All of which explained why Babs glanced at a monitor to her left and cursed. Flicking off the alert, she said aloud, "Ted can wait." The e-mail hadn't set off the really scary alarms, after all.

And then Dinah was back and in need of guidance through an unfamiliar city toward her eventual goal deep in the center of the city. Taking a deep breath, Babs forced herself back awake through force of will.

As she guided Dinah through alleyways and over roofs, Babs absently destroyed the computers of five spammers who sent her penis enlargement e-mails, patched Batman through to an expert in Egyptian hieroglyphs (making a mental note to find out what that was about later), and made progress in updating the Watchtower satellite imaging software.

Meanwhile, a small blue shape that looked slightly like a scarab if you tilted your head started to flash again. "Go soak your head," Babs said to the icon. "Two non-urgent messages? Call someone who cares."

Looking at the clock, she sighed. It was going to be hours before Dinah was safe enough for Babs to sleep.

A message came in from Dick looking moderately urgent and she groaned. As she dug a little deeper into the security system of their target, she smacked a button to bring up his message. "This'd better be good," she muttered to herself.

_Hey, good-looking, I'm on my way outta town for a bit. Catch you next time? Oh and could you send that Interpol data on ASAP. Got a hot lead! - Love, Dick_

Babs stared at the screen for a long valuable moment in which she should have been doing something else. Then she very deliberately said "Fuck you and the horse you rode in on," sent Dick's message to the very bottom of her queue, and went back to work.

A red and blue symbol repeatedly flashed three short and three long on the upper right monitor and Babs' eyebrows shot up. What keywords had Superman used in talking to her avatar to set _that_ off? The last time she'd seen that...oh crap.

After checking Dinah's path was clear for the moment, Babs opened a line. "What's up?" she asked.

"A little matter of a possible imminent invasion of..."

Silently, Babs groaned.

There followed an hour of mustering half a dozen annoyed members of the Justice League to help Superman, while arguing with Dinah about whether she needed to break off her mission to help.

"Damn it, I didn't just spend an entire day getting you this close for you to give up and go help Big Blue."

"But if it's that serious--"

"He's got Green Lantern, the Flash, and Black Lightning," Babs snapped. "I don't think he's going to miss you all that much."

There was silence on the comms for a long moment.

Babs rubbed her forehead. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. I'm obviously worse off than I thought. Look, retrieving this data is very important and I can't do anything with a computer that's not hooked up to any network!"

"Gotcha, Oracle. I'm getting close."

Babs sighed and e-mailed herself a reminder to send Dinah a really big box of Godiva--the dark chocolate one that had everything but the kitchen sink in it--when this retrieval was over. Then she went back to gathering data from around the world for the Justice Leaguers meeting at the Watchtower.

It was just one of those nights, Babs thought. A night when it was hard to remember that sometimes she was actually *bored*. There were even days when she ran random diagnostics on the Pentagon's mainframe just to keep herself from falling asleep due to boredom. This just...wasn't one of those days.

Now her attention was split between getting Dinah into (and out of!) the building without setting off any alarms and making sure the JLA wasn't walking, er, flying into an ambush on their way off-planet.

"Not that way!" she yelled. "No no, Batman, I didn't mean you. No, I'm not micromanaging you, I'm trying to--Oh hell. Just keep going and let me know if anything changes. I need to get back to Black Canary." With an overly forceful thunk, she switched the comms over to Dinah. "Not that way!" she repeated. "I see opposition one floor up. Get out of that elevator shaft now."

She popped another handful of Advil and chased it with orange juice. Why the hell did she even have orange juice around? Babs glared at the glass. She _hated_ orange juice. It was probably Dick's fault. Or Tim's. Or somebody else who would pay with a whole hell of a lot of coffee.

A little flashing blue symbol made her almost shriek. She viciously clicked the icon to open the message so she could reply and tell Ted that whatever the hell he wanted, he wasn't getting it any time this century.

_Babs – Just thought I'd check in and see if you needed anything. – Ted._

Suddenly she was glad she was alone because of all things...she almost cried. Snuffling like a baby, she reached for the keyboard to tell him to come over the next day, after she'd gotten a few hours of sleep, so she could thank him properly.

And she told him to bring coffee. Lots of coffee.

Hey, a girl has to have her priorities straight, right?

\--end--


End file.
